9 people who are shaping the future of transportation

From the advent of ride-sharing services to the invention of self-driving cars, transportation has become one of the most exciting and disruptive areas in techBusiness Insider | Updated: July 18, 2016, 14:36 IST

By Biz Carson, Emmie Martin, Julia Naftulin

From the advent of ride-sharing services to the invention of self-driving cars, transportation has become one of the most exciting and disruptive areas in tech.

Business Insider recently released its annual list of the Silicon Valley 100, highlighting the people who matter most in tech that made a difference in the past year. Here are the innovators and inventors from the list who are shaping the future of transportation.

Pishevar was the person who persuaded Elon Musk to release his plans for the Hyperloop transport system to the public back in 2013. He now heads Hyperloop One, a startup that is trying to make Musk's vision real. Between his investments as a VC and his personal angel investments, he has had stake in a huge list of other startups, including Klout, Parse, TaskRabbit, Tumblr, Warby Parker and Washio.

Zoox, a driverless taxi startup, has the exclusive permission to test drive in California. Kentley Klay and Levinson have stacked their staff with former Alphabet, Apple and Tesla workers to build technology that could rival Uber's ride-hailing service, though the company tends to stay under the radar with its driver-free projects.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, teamed up with the Department of Transportation (US) to bring driverless car tech one step closer to reaching the consumer market. So far, Chris Urmson's driverless car prototype knows how to dodge streakers and women in wheelchairs, but it isn't quite foolproof yet. More tests are yet to come for Urmson and Google.

Hotz is known for his previous life as a hacker. He has built a self-driving car from the comfort of his own garage and created Comma.ai -a kit that lets customers turn “dumb“ cars into self-driving versions -based on that technology. It caught the attention of Andreessen Horowitz, which invested $3 million in the startup.

Vogt might be onto something big. His startup, Cruise, is developing technology that can retroactively transform any car into an autonomous one. His idea is so huge, in fact, that Vogt sold the startup to General Motors for more than $1 billion in March, making him the automaker's point person in Silicon Valley.

Elon Musk: CEO, Tesla; CEO and CTO, SpaceX; chairman, Solar City

Musk is one of the world's most influential entrepreneurs -and preeminent multitaskers. In April, Musk unveiled Tesla's mass-market Model 3, racking up 3,75,000 pre-orders in one month. The company is reportedly struggling to meet demand.

Lyft cofounders Green and Zimmer are looking toward the future of transportation after raising $1 billion in the company's latest funding round in January, more than doubling its valuation to $5.5 billion from $2.5 billion in 2015.

It is testing a service allowing passengers to schedule Lyft rides up to 24 hours in advance. Earlier this year, Lyft signed a partnership with General Motors, along with a $500 million investment, that aims to pursue the development of self-driving cars.